BEST DRONES FOR CHRISTMAS 2018

We round up the best Christmas drones for the 2018 holiday season to help you choose the perfect flying gift.

Best Drones For Christmas 2018

Navigating the Christmas crowds can be pretty tricky and when you are looking for a specialist gift such as a drone it can be even harder to know what to look for and where to find it. We have compiled our top 5 Christmas drones for 2018 right here for you and even provided you with handy links to check the latest prices.

Pre-Christmas is one of the best times to buy a drone as many retailers are falling over themselves to get your custom and as such they save some of their best special offers for the December period. At the time of writing we have managed to source some of the best prices such as the DJI Tell – that is selling at its lowest price this year!

Like dogs, drones aren’t just for Christmas, but this is an excellent time of year to buy one as the prices are generally pretty competitive in November and December. Last year, drones were one of the top selling Christmas gifts and with children and adults alike adding them to their lists for this year, we see the records being broken once again for drone sales.

Rather than listing these drones in order of preference, we have tried to create a list that will cater for all types of drones and all kinds of people. As always, if you have any questions regarding any of these products you can always email our friendly team at support@dronedeliver.co.uk. We will be only too happy to help you choose the right gift.

UDI U818A Drone – Best Budget Drone With Controller

The UDI818A has been one of our favourite drones over the last 12 months. In fact, this was our top selling drone of Christmas 2017 and that’s with good reason. The UDI818A boasts an impressive range of functions including the ability to perform a range of stunts and flips – which is great for the kids and the older kids.

This drone has a built in camera that provides an FPV (first person view) experience when you connect it to your smartphone but can also be used without a smartphone thanks to the controller that comes bundled with it. This is one of the easiest drones to fly thanks the headless mode option – this allows you to control the drone the way you are facing – not the way the drone is facing. The battery life lasts around 6-9 minutes but you do get an extra battery when you order through our preferred partners.

Overall, we think this drone is perfect for teenagers (under supervision) or for adults looking to dip their feet in the waters of drone ownership. At a price point of under £100 this won’t break the bank but is sure to provide hours and hours of fun. It is also perfect for flying indoors (as well as outdoors) so you will be able to enjoy it even if it is snowing outside on Christmas morning – we can only hope.

DJI is one of the most renowned and respected drone manufacturers in the world and earlier in 2018 they teamed up with fellow Chinese start-up company Ryze Technology to bring to market a budget drone called the Tello. The Tello took some of the knowhow that DJI have displayed in their more premium models and also took some pretty decent tech (in the form of an Intel processor) and managed to squeeze it in to this impressive drone.

Although it is small, the Tello packs a pretty heavy punch when it comes to the tech specs. It has a 5MP camera – which is way better than any other sub £100 drone, and also features a whopping 13 minutes of battery life per charge. It is capable of taking FPV video at 720pHD (the same as the UDI818A) and streams this direct to your smartphone where you can then share to social media, save it, edit it or do whatever you wish with it.

The only negative of the Tello drone as a Christmas gift is that it requires smartphone to use it. An Android or iPhone will do the job and are very easy to use – but just be aware that if you are buying it for a younger person who doesn’t have access to one of these then it could be a problem.

The Tello is perfectly suited to young people, those looking to take aerial selfies or for adults who want something that is fun and easy to use. The Tello can also be used to teach basic programming skills and can perform some great stunts – performed by simply swiping your finger in different directions on the phone screen when using the Tello app.

LBLA FPV Drone – Best Low Price Drone

If you are looking for more of a stocking filler than a showstopper gift then the LBLA FPV Drone may be able to deliver on both fronts but for a fraction of the price of others in the market. At under £40, this drone still manages to pack in a camera (albeit a slightly lower quality one at 480p HD) and looks pretty darn cool. In fact, the LBLA made it on to this list for us because it took us back to those days of opening our presents to find a mean (and when we say mean we mean amazing) looking radio controlled car that you just knew was going to be a beast – this is exactly that but in aerial form!

Considering the low price point, the looks of the drone and the excellent battery life (around 10 mins per charge), it is pretty impressive that the LBLA ships with a controller to boot. The controller can be used standalone or can be fitted with your mobile phone to stream the FPV video to.

We found the LBLA very easy to fly, was suitable for indoors as well as outdoors, has altitude hold and headless flying mode and even has a one touch return to home key. The manufacturer suggests this is suitable for children age 12+ so if you are looking for a Christmas drone for kids this could well be the answer.

There is perhaps no surprise that two of the drones on this Christmas gift guide are featured in top position on some of our other buying guides. The Hubsan H501s tops our ‘best drones under £200’ list and with good reason. If you have a bit more of a budget to spend but don’t want to go for the very top end of the consumer drone market then then the Hubsan H501s is an excellent purchase. It has features galore including a 1080p HD camera (better than all of the sub £100 drones we have mentioned so far) and has the killer advantage of having built in GPS. This means that the drone can follow you as well as being able to find its way back to you should you lose it for any reason.

The Hubsan H501s is capable of taking some of the most stunning images and video – especially on bright and well lit days and is pretty stable even in windy conditions. It does not have a gimbal, but the footage still remains pretty steady even at high altitude.

The controller that comes supplied has a screen so there is no need to use a mobile phone as the screen and this helps with visibility as it is not too bad to see the screen in the sunshine.

The battery on the Hubsan is one of the standout features with a flight time of around 20 minutes – not heard of at this price point and with a recommended age from the manufacturer of 12+ it could be a very nice (if not somewhat expensive) Christmas gift for a child.

The DJI Mavic Air is one of the best consumer drones on the market today. It is not the most expensive by a long shot but there is no getting away from it’s premium price tag. We are showcasing the Mavic Air Fly More bundle here (as it is heavily discounted and has some great extras) and if you can stomach the price tag you may just win the prize of giving the best Christmas gift of the year award – if not the decade!

The 32MP sphere camera is only the tip of the iceberg with this beautiful piece of flying tech and when you start to look at your 4K aerial video footage that is perfectly smooth thanks to the onboard 3 axis gimbal – you start to realise that this is a serious piece of kit. This is a strictly adults only affair but that doesn’t mean it is hard to fly – in fact, with 3 directional obstacle sensors you would do very well to crash this thing – although we wouldn’t suggest trying!

There are too many functions to mention in this round up but with features such as follow me, active track, smart capture (using gestures) and HDR photography this is simply one of those gifts that will keep on giving. Battery life is around the 21 minute mark and with this Fly More combo package you get a total of 3 batteries, a battery charging hub and a travel bag – so you are getting over an hours worth of flying time!

This is without doubt the showstopper gift and will last for years to come thanks to the amount of onboard tech the Mavic Air has at its disposal.

These five drones in our Christmas gift guide all have their merits. From the real budget drones that are great for kids or first timers all the way up to the Mavic Air that is capable of stunning 4K video and HDR photographs – all of these drones are capable of putting a sparkle in to Christmas day for someone.